The Irish Melting Pot... research tips, genealogy, transcriptions, including all news from Clare Roots Society ... general Irish news and items you may otherwise miss..
This is As They Were...
they are just waiting for you to find them.

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

At the handing of the Ballyroe School roll books to Kerry County Library were back, from left: Micheal Lynch, John King, Marian Fitzgerald, Kay McGillycuddy, Tommy O’Connor, Peggy Geary, Angela Kirby and Marie McSweeney. Front: Denis Walsh and Margaret Murphy.

LONG lost roll books from the old schoolhouse in Ballyroe have been handed over to the Kerry County Library.

For many years the fate of the books had remained a mystery, until one day when former pupil of the school, Margaret Murphy, who was planning a Ballyroe school reunion at the time, received a phone call out of the blue.

“When we were organising the reunion, I was on the radio and mentioned we were searching for the roll books,” said Margaret Murphy.

“I got a phone call from CBS Clounalour and they told me that they had the roll books. It was amazing to get them, because we can see our parents and grandparents, neighbours and sisters in them. Seeing my Mother’s name in the roll book in particular was special,” said Margaret.FOR THE FULL STORY, PLEASE GO TOhttp://traleetoday.ie/vital-link-to-ballyroes-past-handed-over-to-library/

Monday, 30 March 2015

300 Headstones added to Deansgrange, Co. Dublin, Headstone Records. See North Section Part 5, and St. Patrick's Section Part 21. Links to files are in March Additions on http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/

"One of the strongest drivers of genealogical research is the feeling of bringing back into the light individuals who have been forgotten or deliberately written out of official history. That sense of righting historic family wrongs is powerful and addictive.

Sunday, 29 March 2015

CLARE ROOTS SOCIETY are about to take on a large transcription project in conjunction with CLARE LIBRARY re details from old Clare newspapers.

See…. http://astheywere.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/the-biographical-index-of-clare.htmlThese are stored on microfilm in the Library and can be read on three readers in the public part of Local Studies. Trying to facilitate about 25 volunteers on these readers and still allow access by the general public to the machines will be difficult.
Some firms use microfilm readers that are gradually being replaced by computer-based readers. If you know of any older reader no longer required, we would love to put it to good use. Our group which covers all of Co. Clare, is a very active voluntary body. We have been in existence for almost 10 years and have published 22 books and a considerable amount of transcriptions of gravestones, out of-print directories and many other aids to those researching family histories. Our policy is to donate all our genealogy research to Clare Library, so that it can go online and be accessed by Clare people, all over the world free of charge.
You will find details of us on our website:
http://www.clareroots.org/We would be very grateful if you could direct us to where we could locate such a machine.
Thank you.

New Irish family history resources dating as far back 1595!

Findmypast has made two exciting new collections available for tracing your Irish ancestors all the way back into the 16th century. Theses fascinating additions to Findmypast’s 90 million plus historical Irish records, include indexes of your ancestors’ wills and marriages, namely;

All of Ireland’s Catholic Church records to go online

Tracing your Irish roots just got a whole lot easier as the National Library of Ireland is to give free online access to its Catholic Church records collection online, from summer 2015. This will enable millions of people around the world to trace their roots in Ireland.

Thousands expected to join Trinity’s free online Irish history class

Up to 17,000 people are expected to avail of a free online Irish history class offered by Trinity College Dublin. In what has become one of the world’s biggest classes in Irish history, “Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland’s History 1912-1923” is a six-week course taught online by Trinity lecturers.

Irish Roots: Godzilla next door

When Godzilla moves in next door, some nervousness is understandable. So the recent news that Ancestry.com is looking to employ professional genealogists in Dublin has caused some very reasonable twitchiness among Irish professionals. American big business has a long history of competing independent Mom-and-Pop outfits into the ground, assimilating them and replacing them with corporate replicants. Is that what’s going to happen to Irish genealogy?

Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Happy St Patrick's Day from all at Clare Roots Society.Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!Also read below for exciting new project that will help people all over the world via Clare library website. Interested Volunteers please get in touch with the two addresses below.

New Clare Roots Project

'Biographical Index of Clare Champion 1903-1935'

The project is a collaborative between Clare Roots Society and Clare County Library. Clare Roots Society is looking for volunteers to assist in the collection and recording of Biographical Notices published in the Clare Champion Newspaper for years 1903-1934. This information will create a searchable index to be made available on the Clare Library website for Public access when completed.

A similar project was undertaken some years ago for Clare Champion issues published for years 1935-1985 and the index is presently available on-line. The new project will complete the index forALLClare Champion publication years, 1903-1985.

The editions of the newspaper can be on Microfilm spool, Microfiche and Hardcopy, located in the Local Studies Centre where the review and recording will take place. Volunteers may have events in their family history of special interest related to specific calendar years and where possible these calendar years will be assigned to them on a 'first request' basis. Transcriptions can be carried out at a time suitable for the volunteer.

Volunteers will review the newspapers for the following categories of Biographical information:

·Birth

·Marriage

·Death

·Engagement

·Ordination

·Obituary

Information to be collected:

·SurnameForenameAddressType of Notice

The information collected will be entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet provided by the Project Co-ordinator. However, lack of computer skills should not preclude anyone from volunteering for this project. Collecting the information and submitting hand written lists will be of considerable benefit to the Project Team. A briefing session will be provided for those who are new to handling hardcopy archives to ensure protection of the paper copies.

Interested researchers can volunteer by contacting the Project Co-ordinator:

This will only apply to those who can access the facilities at Clare Local Studies Centre at this stage. We may need those from the Diaspora at a later date. So, if you live in the area and are willing to help transcribe as per the article, could you please contact either of the two gentlemen listed at the bottom of the post above. Thank you.

As Queensland is said to have the highest number of Irish born or Irish descendants of any other state or territory in Australia, it seems only fitting to show you how we celebrate... always the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day...Besides the green beer in so many pubs and the 'genuine Irish' menus, we love to join in the music and the dance .....and perhaps just dream for awhile that we are actually in Ireland!

One of the very many interesting sessions at the recent RootsTech 2015 Conference was presented by Dennis Brimhall, the CEO of FamilySearch International, exploring the remarkable things that are happening in the world of family history.

"Brimhall said, “People who don’t do family history say one of these things: I don’t have time. It’s too hard. I don’t know where to start. Or it’s all been done.” The question becomes how to help them overcome those objections and dive into something that is really fun, as intriguing as a mystery with ah-ha’s along the way.(It’s notable that Sherlock Holmes himself showed up at the conference.)

FamilySearch has worked to answer those objections. Before Brimhall directed FamilySearch he worked in the healthcare industry and saw that all the efforts there were made from the doctor out. The doctor’s needs were met long before the patients needs in large healthcare systems. He determined that instead FamilySearch had to be from the user in—that the most important thing to create was a friendly, accessible user experience."

Read about the apps that are available to help in your search, find a grave site, write your own story... enjoy.

In the early 18th century, poets working for Dál Cais in Thomond and Mac Carthaigh in Desmond put together genealogical accounts to create what is called "An Leabhar Muimneach" or the Munster Book. This is a 17th century account of the main families of both areas set within the context of traditional Irish beliefs about the six ages of man and the populating of Ireland. This lecture will focus on the dicsussion of the families associated with the lands west of the River Fergus in this text.

Dr Cathy Swift began her academic career in UCD, graduating in 1985 with double first in History and Archaeology. She won scholarships to the University of Durham, Oxford (M.Phil, D.Phil) and Konstanz. she has worked as lecturer in UCD, TCD, Maynooth, Galway and Liverpool. She specialises in early medieval Ireland from an inter-disciplinary point of view (history, archaeology, old Irish literature) and has published widely on kings, ogham stones, saints, navies, Vikings and church settlements.

Cathy currently lectures in Irish Studies in Mary Immaculate College (University of Limerick).